Who Rules the World to Come?

John Piper

John Piper is founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary. For 33 years, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is author of more than 50 books, including Reading the Bible Supernaturally.

Jesus Is Superior to Angels

As you turn to the text, let me remind you about what we have
seen in chapter 1. The writer says that in former times God spoke
in various ways through the prophets but in these last days he has
spoken to us by a Son, namely, Jesus Christ (Hebrews 1:1–2). Jesus
is God's final and decisive Word to the world. He inaugurates the
"last days" because after him there is no third period of
revelation. Everything God has to say from here onto eternity he
says in Jesus. If there is fuller revelation, it will be
clarification, amplification, and application of the Jesus already
revealed in history and in the New Testament.

The writer stresses the utter superiority and uniqueness of
Jesus over angels because angels had played a crucial role in
mediating the word of God in the Old Testament (Hebrews 2:2). So
the writer wants to make sure we do not say, "Well, if God spoke
through angels in the Old Testament and spoke in these last days
through his Son, then his Son is a great angel." "Wrong," the
writer says. Jesus is not a big angel. He is the radiance of the
glory of God and the exact representation of God's nature. He is
God the Son (Hebrews 1:8) and, as such, angels worship him (Hebrews
1:6) and do his bidding (Hebrews 1:14).

God Did Not Subject to Angels the World to Come

The conclusion the writer draws from this exalted place of Jesus
in the universe as God's final word to the world is found in
Hebrews 2:1. So here is where we will pick up our reading.

For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we
have heard, lest we drift away from it. 2 For if the word spoken
through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression and
disobedience received a just recompense, 3 how shall we escape if
we neglect so great a salvation? After it was at the first spoken
through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard, 4 God
also bearing witness with them, both by signs and wonders and by
various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His
own will. 5 For He did not subject to angels the world to come,
concerning which we are speaking. 6 But one has testified
somewhere, saying, "WHAT IS MAN, THAT THOU REMEMBEREST HIM? OR THE
SON OF MAN, THAT THOU ART CONCERNED ABOUT HIM? 7 THOU HAST MADE HIM
FOR A LITTLE WHILE LOWER THAN THE ANGELS; THOU HAST CROWNED HIM
WITH GLORY AND HONOR, AND HAST APPOINTED HIM OVER THE WORKS OF THY
HANDS; 8 THOU HAST PUT ALL THINGS IN SUBJECTION UNDER HIS FEET."
For in subjecting all things to him, He left nothing that is not
subject to him. But now we do not yet see all things subjected to
him. 9 But we do see Him who has been made for a little while lower
than the angels, namely, Jesus, because of the suffering of death
crowned with glory and honor, that by the grace of God He might
taste death for everyone.

Our focus this morning is on verses 5–9. Notice that this
passage begins with the word "for." "For" or "because" means that
he is giving a basis or defense of what he just said: "For He [=
God] did not subject to angels the world to come." What he had just
said was that our salvation is so great and so well attested that
it is folly and dangerous to neglect it and drift into
indifference. Why? "For God did not subject to angels the
world to come concerning which we are speaking."

How does that make sense? Don't neglect your great salvation,
"For God did not subject to angels the world to come."
What's at stake here is who rules the world to come. To whom
is the age to come subjected? And the answer to this tells
us something crucial about how great our salvation is, so that we
will not neglect it but give all the closer heed to it.

Keep in mind here that when Hebrews 2:3 speaks of a "great
salvation," it is referring not only to all that Christ did by his
death and resurrection to purify us from our sins (Hebrews 1:3),
but also to all the effects of that in the age to come. We know
this because in Hebrews 1:14b the writer says that we "will inherit
salvation." In other words we experience part of it now in the
purification of our sins and reconciliation with God, but there is
more—O so much more—that we are yet to inherit. And
that is what verses 5–9 talk about.

So when verse 5 speaks of "the world to come," it means the
world of our final salvation—the time and the place and the
relationships of glory and perfection after Jesus comes a second
time and establishes his everlasting kingdom of righteousness and
joy. So we can paraphrase like this: don't neglect your coming
great salvation, because (as verse 5 says) in the coming world it
is not angels who will have everything in subjection to
them—it is not angels who will rule, but . . . But who?

Neglecting So Great a Salvation

Who will rule? What is the answer to that question which makes
our salvation so great we would be utter fools to neglect it for
mere power plays in this life, or mere possessions, or mere family?
Jesus told a parable one time about God's great salvation and how
people neglected it (Luke 14:16–20):

A certain man was giving a big dinner, and he invited many; 17
and at the dinner hour he sent his slave to say to those who had
been invited, "Come; for everything is ready now." 18 But they all
alike began to make excuses. The first one said to him, "I have
bought a piece of land and I need to go out and look at it; please
consider me excused." 19 And another one said, "I have bought five
yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out; please consider me
excused." 20 And another one said, "I have married a wife, and for
that reason I cannot come."

This is the classic picture from Jesus of what it means to
"neglect so great a salvation." And notice they are all good
things: a piece of land, a yoke of oxen, a wife. And for that,
salvation is neglected and lost.

Now in Hebrews 2:5–9 the writer is helping us not to do that. He
is laboring with the means appointed by God to save
us—namely, with words. He is saying, Don't neglect this great
salvation. Don't neglect what Christ has purchased for you and what
is coming to you in the world to come. For in the world to come it
is not to angels that God subjected all things.

To Whom Has He Subjected All Things?

But to whom then? And how is this part of our great
salvation?

Verses 6–8 give his answer. Not to angels . . .

But one has testified somewhere [referring to Psalm 8:4–6],
saying, "WHAT IS MAN, THAT THOU REMEMBEREST HIM? OR THE SON OF MAN,
THAT THOU ART CONCERNED ABOUT HIM? 7 THOU HAST MADE HIM FOR A
LITTLE WHILE [or "a little"] LOWER THAN THE ANGELS; THOU HAST
CROWNED HIM WITH GLORY AND HONOR, AND HAST APPOINTED HIM OVER THE
WORKS OF THY HANDS; 8 THOU HAST PUT ALL THINGS IN SUBJECTION UNDER
HIS FEET. For in subjecting all things to him, He left nothing that
is not subject to him.

Who is it, then, who rules the world to come? In Psalm 8 this
passage refers to human beings in general:

What is man that you remember him? Or the son of man, that you
are concerned about him? You have made him a little lower than the
angels . . .

All this refers to the seeming insignificance ("What is man?"),
and at the same time the amazing majesty, of man ("You have made him
a little less, or for a while less, than angels"). David in this psalm is celebrating the majesty of God by calling attention to the
fact that man, who is created in God's image, is appointed to be
the ruler over his creation—"You have put all things in
subjection under his feet" (v. 8).

To Humans or to Christ?

Is this what the writer of Hebrews means by these verses? Or is
he taking the words of the psalm and referring them to Christ? Is
he saying that man in general is the ruler of creation
under God, or is he saying that Christ is the ruler of
creation? Or is there some interplay here that involves both?

My approach is to assume that the New Testament writers built on
the Old Testament meaning of the psalms (and other books) unless
something in the context forces me to think otherwise. So let's try
that and see if it makes sense out of this passage. I think it
does.

The flow of thought would go like this. Hebrews 2:1–4 says that
we should be tremendously vigilant over our minds and hearts so
that we don't drift away from the Word of God (1:2; 2:1) and
neglect our great salvation (2:3) which is coming to us as an
inheritance (1:14), if we hold fast to our confession of hope (3:6,
14; 4:14; 10:23) firm to the end.

Then verses 5–8 say that salvation is indeed very great and
worth embracing with joy and perseverance because God did not
subject the coming world of our salvation to angels but to
humans—to us. This is why our salvation is so great and
immeasurably valuable—because in this salvation we are
destined for something unspeakably great—we are destined to
have all that is in creation put in subjection under our feet. It
will all one day serve us completely for a good and joyful end.

But All Things Are Not Subjected to Man Now

There is one massive problem. The writer mentions it at the end
of verse 8: "But now we do not yet see all things subjected to
him." I think the "him" here still refers to "man"—the human
beings referred to in Psalm 8. So
the tension builds. How is this
problem to be solved? Man is to rule creation under God, but we do
not see him ruling.

First, the writer tells us to be alert and careful to treasure
our great salvation. Then, second, he says that the reason he
says it is so great and valuable is that in the age to come God has
promised to subject the whole creation to his redeemed (saved)
people, not to angels. That hope is part of our great
salvation—that someday those who have held fast to their
great salvation will be revealed as the sons of God and all
creation will serve them rather than ravage them the way it does
now. They will be victorious over the natural world rather than
victims of its floods and hurricanes and tornadoes and diseases and
death. But then he says, very realistically, in the third place,
wherever you look in the world today, that is not what you see (end
of verse 8): all things are not subject to man. Psalm 8 is
not now fulfilled in man.

On the contrary, man is subject to the creation in dreadful
ways. We try to persuade ourselves that we are masters of our fate,
and that since we can make airplanes and radios and televisions and
computers and cellular phones and lasers and antibiotics and
artificial heart valves and pacemakers and fertilizers and
corneas—that we are indeed now the rulers of creation, that
all things are subjected to us now.

Man Is Subject to Death

There are many problems with this persuasion. The most glaring
one—the one that concerns the writer of Hebrews most is
death. Whatever we have been able to conquer as human
beings, we have not conquered death. It triumphs everywhere. It
strikes babies and teenagers and young adults and mid-lifers and
older people. It scoffs at our medicines and surgeries and diets
and vitamins and exercise programs. When all is said and done,
rocket scientists die. Politicians die. Doctors die. Professors
die. Nobel prize winners die. The rich die and the poor die. The
good die and the evil die. Farmers die. Bankers die. Carpenters
die. Computer programmers die. And preachers die.

Death is not subject to man. And therefore nothing
is ultimately subject to us, because it is only a matter of
time till it will all be taken away from us, and what we thought we
had mastered will be ripped out of our hands. That's what this
writer is painfully aware of at the end of verse 8. The psalm says
that man has a great destiny as the ruler of the creation. This is
part of our great salvation. But the reality is we are not
conquerors now; we are carcasses—all of us.

So what does the writer then say to rescue our great salvation
and the meaning of Psalm 8? Verse 9 gives his answer. Make sure you
see it in connection with verse 8 at the end:

But now we do not yet see all things subjected to him [that is,
to man, because, for example, death is so rampant]. 9 But we do see
Him who has been made for a little while lower than the angels,
namely, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory
and honor, that by the grace of God He might taste death for
everyone.

In other words, we don't see Psalm 8 fulfilled in ourselves yet.
But what we see is Psalm 8 fulfilled in Jesus. We are still subject
to death and all kinds of weaknesses and futilities. But Jesus has
now passed through weakness and death, and is crowned with glory
and honor. He is seated in power at the right hand of God and all
his enemies are subjected to him as a footstool for his feet
(1:13).

Jesus Tasted Death for Everyone

So how is this part of a great salvation for us? How
does this relate to our fulfilling the great hope of Psalm
8 when we will triumph over death and God will put
creation in subjection to our rule?

The answer is seen in the words at the end of verse 9: Christ
came and suffered and died, "that by the grace of God He might
taste death for everyone." In other words, Christ was the
first man to be restored to the magnificent destiny of Psalm 8. He
was crowned with glory and honor over all creation. But he does not
enter his glory by himself. Verse 10 says that he "is bringing many
sons to glory"—the glory of Psalm 8. Our great salvation is
that, united to Jesus, we will experience the fulfillment
of Psalm 8 as well. Jesus is the great forerunner of our salvation.
What has happened to him will happen to us.
Because he tasted death for us, we can be sure that we will share
his rule over creation.

The first man—the first Adam—sinned and was
subjected to futility and death. The second Adam, Jesus Christ,
defeated death and restored the hope of Psalm 8 for all who are in
him. You, Christian, who do not neglect this great salvation, you
will reign with Christ, and all things will one day be put in
subjection to you. All things will serve your great good. All
things, without any mixture of pain or sorrow or regret will
manifest the glory of God to you and through you
as you rule with Christ.

What Should Our Response Be?

What then shall we do? Put your faith in the promise of this
great future grace—that what you see in Christ today will
someday be your portion. Fix your eyes on Christ, not on the pain
and futility and frustration and sickness and death of this age.
They will not have the last word. Christ has conquered death and
all the sin and pain that leads to death. Think on him. Consider
him. Look to him.

And say to cancer and paralysis and sightless children and
airplane-eating Everglades and child-shooting fathers—say to
every unsubjected enemy—"Psalm 8 is my destiny! In Christ
Jesus all things will one day be put under my feet, and I will rule
with him in glory forever and ever." Believe that and say
that—in the face of every calamity and every frustration in
life. Because it is true. Jesus has made it true.